A grade card on Ohio State’s 49-14 win over Marshall in its final non-conference game before nine straight Big Ten games:
OFFENSE: A-
On the surface it’s hard to criticize Ohio State’s offense after it gained 569 yards of total offense and achieved nearly perfect balance with 289 yards passing and 280 yards rushing. But the Buckeyes started slowly on both sides of the ball and found themselves in a 7-7 tie after one quarter. OSU scored its first touchdown on a 68-yard pass play from quarterback Will Howard to wide receiver Emeka Egbuka on its second offensive play, then turned the ball over on an interception on the fourth play of its second possession.
Marshall ran 25 offensive plays in the first quarter and Ohio State had six offensive plays. Marshall had the football for 13 of the first 15 minutes of the game. A similar slow start against a better opponent might be costly.
Transfer portal additon Quinshon Judkins (173 yards rushing, 2 touchdowns) and TreVeyon Henderson (76 yards rushing, 2 touchdowns) might be the best pair of running backs in college football. Henderson has started OSU’s first three games but Judkins has been the more dominant of the two, including an 86-yard touchdown run in the win over Marshall.
OSU did a nice job of creating explosive plays. In addition to Judkins’ 86-yard touchdown run and Egbuka’s 68-yard touchdown catch, Jeremiah Smith had a 53-yard touchdown catch and Henderson scored on a 40-yard run.
DEFENSE: B
Ohio State’s defense was far from dominating in the first half when it gave up 203 yards and the first two touchdowns it has allowed this season. But the Buckeyes did shut down Marshall in the second half when the Thundering Herd gained only 63 yards. OSU’s best interior defensive lineman, Tyleik Williams, did not play because of an unspecified injury and his absence might have been a factor in Marshall’s early success at moving the ball.
Ohio State had only one sack, by defensive lineman Caden Curry, but did have seven tackles for losses.
SPECIAL TEAMS: D-
There were lots of minuses and few plusses for OSU’s special teams on Saturday. After having no problems with his first two kickoffs, Jayden Fielding kicked three consecutive kickoffs out of bounds in the second quarter and was replaced by Austin Snyder for the rest of the game on kickoffs. Brandon Inniss fumbled a punt that Marshall recovered near the goal line but a penalty on the Thundering Herd for lining up in an illegal formation erased that mistake.
Inniss returned a punt 21 yards but could have had more yards if he hadn’t stumbled and fallen at the end of the return.
OVERALL: B+
Ohio State coach Ryan Day called the week off without a game before playing Marshall “Improvement Week.” For a while early in Saturday’s game against the Thundering Herd it looked like OSU might need Improvement Week Part II. The expectation was that Marshall would be overmatched, similar to how Akron and Western Michigan were. Eventually it was but it took a little while longer. In the second half, talent and depth took over.
